Getting ready

Saturday

Sep 30, 2017 at 9:00 PMOct 1, 2017 at 9:32 AM

Tim Horan @TimHoranSJ

Owners of businesses on Santa Fe Avenue will be encouraging customers to "use the back door" for the next two summers.

That’s when Santa Fe Avenue will undergo a makeover, between Elm and Mulberry streets in the downtown area. The cost of the project is estimated at between $10 million and $15 million. The city of Salina has committed up to $10.1 million, with the rest of the funding coming from Sales Tax Revenue bonds.

Deputy City Manager Mike Schrage said the city's portion will come from sales tax proceeds. The exact amount coming from the city could be less, depending on STAR bond revenue.

With that big of an undertaking, access to shopping and dining areas could be a concern, but business owners and officials with Salina Downtown are trying to be pro-active.

“Almost all of the businesses have back-door access,” said Penny Bettles, executive director of Salina Downtown. “We are trying to spruce up the back alleys, light them up and make them more safe.”

Saline Downtown is forming a committee to attract customers to the back-door parking and entryways during the two summers of streetscape construction.

“We’re trying to make it easy to avoid the construction. We are making the back doors more pedestrian friendly, making the back alleys more lit, better space. There are a lot of parking lots in the back on Fifth and Seventh streets that just lead you right up to the back door,” she said. “We want to educate those customers where the problem spots are.

Will stay open

“A lot of people get used to parking on Santa Fe and if they don’t find a parking spot they are not going to stop. We want to retrain those customers, that we do have lots of parking in the back. Don’t be afraid to use them. Everyone has a back door. Maybe we add some more signage?”

Even during construction of new, wider sidewalks downtown, areas in front of Santa Fe Avenue stores won't be completely closed, said Salina Public Works Director Jim Kowach.

“Even when we say we are closing one side of the street, the sidewalk still has to be open to all the front doors," he said. "They are going to have to do the sidewalks half at a time on the side of the street they are working on.”

New water main

Actual work on Santa Fe Avenue will start in November, when a new water main is installed down the center of the street, said Salina Utilities Director Martha Tasker.

Tasker said Santa Fe Avenue will be kept open while the water main is being replaced over a five-block area.

“We are going to tear a strip down the center and put in a new main, then put either asphalt or concrete over it,” she said.

She hopes the installation is completed by July.

Kowach said the entire streetscape project will take about two years.

It is part of a $155 million downtown redevelopment project.

Most excited

The first phase of the Santa Fe streetscape will be completed in 2018, "and they are going to start in different areas around some of the big projects that are happening,” Kowach said.

Despite what could be a long process, most downtown business owners are excited about the changes coming, including a downtown hotel, bowling alley, car museum, new restaurant, University of Kansas medical and nursing school, downtown housing and $10 million in improvements to existing retail businesses. Salina Fieldhouse opened in July.

Kowach said the streetscape around those projects will be completed first.

“Overall everyone is excited,” Bettles said. “It is a scary time with major construction right outside your front door but the end result is going to be absolutely worth it. It’s been a long time coming but it has been in conversations for several years.

“I think we are all ready and excited to see it happen, to have it come to fruition. It’s going to be a hard couple years but if we stick together and communicate with the customers and the contractors, I think we can hang in there and see it through to the end."

Shows go on

Jane Gates, executive director of the Stiefel Theatre for the Performing Arts, said there won’t be a slowdown in performances.

“We just foresee great joy and happiness that this is happening,” she said.

Included in the project is $2.2 million in improvements to the theater.

“Our sidewalk will be open. We’re just going to make do, to continue programming year-round,” she said. “It’s very important for us to continue to operate. We don’t foresee any slowing down.”

Most theater-goers park on the side streets and in parking lots anyway, she said.

“We’re going to be very careful as we make some improvements to the Stiefel to continue programming. If we have a two- or three-week break between shows we are going to be scheduling work done during that time,” Gates said. “We will be very cautious that our walkways are open and clear and that we have safe access.”

Will be challenge

Tammy Jarvis, owner of Ad Astra Books and Coffee House, 141 N. Santa Fe, said the city is sprucing up the area to the north by taking out trees and adding a sidewalk and some park benches.

Like all owners of businesses on Santa Fe, Jarvis is concerned about losing customers during construction.

“I have a pretty loyal following here and I’m certainly not concerned about our regular constituency being able to get here. I can sure see how it’s going to be a challenge to still seem inviting to people who aren’t determined to get here,” she said.

“IIn the end, we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will all be worth it. We are going to have to be creative to seem welcoming when there is all that going on out front.”

Sprucing up

Blake Blackim, owner of Midwest Music, said many of his customers already use the back door.

“I’m all about the streetscape project. I am excited about the potential activity coming in downtown,” he said. “We’re kind of a destination type store, a destination location. A lot of our business is with school systems and schools outside of Salina. The bulk of our business is traveling to this area from outside of Salina.”

Blackim said he is considering adding signage and an awning to attract more customers to the back door.

Plans in progress

Kowach said he expects the first phase of the streetscape to start in the spring. The contractor will close one side of the street to parking and traffic. There will be two-way traffic and parking on the other side of the street.

“Because we are narrowing the street, in the second phase we believe there will only be room for one-way traffic and parking on that same block. Things will get narrow,” he said.

The first part of the summer there will be two-way traffic. The second part there probably will be just one-way traffic, he said.

“Unless the contractor comes up with another scheme, they still have to complete those areas next summer,” he said.

Plans are expected to be completed in November with requests for bids going out before Christmas.

“Then we’ll know who our contractor is and he’ll have a couple months of winter to be ordering materials, getting supplies, planning the work of the different subcontractors,” Kowach said. “He’ll have plenty of time to get ready. The middle of March, the first of April, we’re going to be jumping into it.”